{"id":339619,"date":"2025-12-09T20:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/339619\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T20:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:20:07","slug":"cdc-pushing-pseudoscience-for-vaccine-advice-and-we-cant-rely-on-them-n-j-officials-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/339619\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC pushing \u2018pseudoscience\u2019 for vaccine advice and we can\u2019t rely on them, N.J. officials warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey legislators who say the nation\u2019s leading authority on vaccines is straying from science and toward conspiracy theories want the state to use other scientific agencies when it comes to vaccine recommendations.<\/p>\n

A committee of the New Jersey Senate voted 5-3 Monday to advance a bill that would expand the number of scientific agencies the state Department of Health can use to make vaccine recommendations. <\/p>\n

Currently, the New Jersey Department of Health relies solely on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for guidance concerning vaccinations and immunizations. But the nation\u2019s leading vaccine panel has undergone significant changes in recent months that have some legislators and health professionals questioning whether its guidance can be trusted. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe legislation before this committee today puts New Jersey\u2019s health care experts and scientists at the forefront of making recommendations to doctors and parents alike when it comes to the well-being of all New Jersey residents,\u201d said State Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee and the bill\u2019s primary sponsor, at a hearing Monday in Trenton. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: N.J. defies childhood vaccine recommendations of panel appointed by RFK Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

In June, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 members of the advisory vaccine panel and replaced them, sparking controversy and concern among health professionals. Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic<\/a> and has made false claims about vaccines in the past.<\/p>\n

Following Kennedy\u2019s appointment, Vitale said Monday, he grew concerned with how Kennedy may use his influence to undermine evidence-based public health strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it appears that my suspicions and concerns, and those of the scientific community, have been validated,\u201d said Vitale, referring to the vaccine panel\u2019s recent decision to rollback recommendations for hepatitis B vaccination at birth. <\/p>\n

Gov. Phil Murphy\u2019s administration criticized the CDC vaccine panel\u2019s policy change<\/a> on Friday and continues to recommend hepatitis B vaccination within 24 hours of birth.<\/p>\n

A statement condemning the vaccine panel\u2019s policy change was co-signed by more than 40 leading medical organizations<\/a>, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. <\/p>\n

\u201cUntil recently, our nation\u2019s public health experts relied on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to make recommendations for the childhood immunization schedule,\u201d said Acting Health Commissioner Jeff Brown, who testified in support of the bill at Monday\u2019s committee hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, this year marked a departure from that history as we saw new members being appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and a departure from considering science and evidence and a movement towards, frankly, embracing pseudoscience and moving away from the core tenets of public health,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

The bill doesn\u2019t remove the CDC\u2019s vaccine panel as a trusted authority, but rather ensures that it\u2019s not the only medical organization that New Jersey relies on for vaccines guidance. <\/p>\n

The bill states that in making recommendations on vaccines, the state Department of Health will consider the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, as well as the following organizations: the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Physicians.<\/p>\n

The combined bill, S4894\/4726<\/a>, would also require insurance companies to cover vaccinations recommended by the state Department of Health. That measure appears to have industry support. <\/p>\n

On Friday, the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance issued guidance to insurance carriers advising that, \u201cregardless of federal actions relating to the childhood immunization schedule, it expects carriers to provide coverage for childhood immunizations recommended by the New Jersey Department of Health, including for the hepatitis B vaccination series, in accordance with State law and without cost sharing or the imposition of additional barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Physicians and local health officials who testified in support of the bill said it would allow the state Department of Health to use recommendations from other scientific bodies and allow insurers to take those recommendations into account to ensure continued coverage. <\/p>\n

Opponents of the legislation raised concerns about parental rights and giving too much power to a singular state authority, in this case, the New Jersey Department of Health. Several speakers worried the bill would change medical and religious exemptions for students, which have increased in recent years. <\/p>\n

State Sen. Holly T. Schepisi, who voted against the bill, said Monday that she was concerned it would expand the state Department of Health\u2019s authority to such a degree that its vaccine recommendations may become mandates. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know this is something that has kind of bounced around, where recommendations come from you, we sit here, and the recommendations do become \u2018Your kid may or may not be able to go to school unless they have this.\u2019 And I think that\u2019s where the concern for me as a parent comes into play,\u201d said Schepisi, a Republican who represents Bergen County. <\/p>\n

Department of Health staff and Vitale said that the bill includes no mandates or changes to vaccine exemptions. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, it gives them the ability to consider other opinions that are given to us by medical professionals and scientists,\u201d Vitale, a Democrat representing Middlesex County, told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The bill still has to go through several legislative hoops before it becomes law. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Jersey legislators who say the nation\u2019s leading authority on vaccines is straying from science and toward conspiracy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-339619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}